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November 13, 2015 - Image 14

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of Michigan?’ I was in complete
shock and I honestly thought — I
thought he was messing with me.”

* * *

Back home, Brumm had been

pounding the phones on Spike’s
behalf, reaching out to college
coaches. Brumm and Michigan
assistant coach Jeff Meyer are
longtime friends, and when Meyer
mentioned
Michigan
needed

a point guard because then-
freshman guard Trey Burke might
take off for the NBA, Brumm
didn’t hesitate to recommend
Spike.

“I
felt
Spike
could
play

anywhere all along,” Brumm said.
“But convincing (college coaches)
is a different story.”

Luckily
for
Spike,
Meyer

trusted Brumm’s word and came
out to watch him play.

In a game against Hargrave

Military Academy, with Meyer
in the crowd, Spike put up nine
points and tallied 14 assists. He
was worried it wasn’t enough to
impress the coach.

After
the
game,
Spike

remembers
thinking,
“Damn,

did I just miss my chance with
Michigan?”

The next day, Beilein called.

He’d had his eye on Spike from a
distance and loved what he saw.

Beilein was impressed with

his play, so much so that he
personally cut film of Spike —
some 300 clips, he says — the
most he has ever scrutinized

a recruit on video. Perhaps, in
Spike, Beilein saw himself: an
undersized,
under-recruited

guard with good handles. Beilein
played at Wheeling College — a
small Division-II school — and
spent most of his time there on the
bench.

Despite Meyer’s report, Beilein

still wasn’t sure. Back on campus
one day in the spring of 2012,
Beilein
called
then-Michigan

junior Josh Bartelstein into his
office and showed him film of
Spike.

“ ‘I want you to watch film with

me for five minutes and tell me if
I’m crazy or if this kid’s actually
good,’ ” Bartelstein remembers
Beilein telling him. “ ‘He’s got no
other offers. People aren’t gonna
offer him. People are gonna think
I’m nuts, but I’m telling you, I see
something in him.’ ”

Bartelstein
watched
with

Beilein, and could tell his coach
was high on the little guy.

Beilein wanted to see for

himself. He met Spike in Crown
Point for an in-home visit. He
pulled onto the sloped driveway
and Albrecht was standing at the
bottom.

“His coach told me he’s not

going to pass the eye test,” Beilein
recalls. “I was standing above
him, and he was below me, and I’m
looking, towering over him, and
I’m saying to myself, ‘No kidding,
he’s not passing this first eye test
at all.’ ”

The coach and player met

and talked about the potential

opportunity
of
playing
at

Michigan. Beilein still hadn’t seen
him play in person, though, so he
later traveled to NMH to watch
him play in an open gym.

Beilein,
along
with
other

college coaches, including some
from Appalachian State, which
had recently extended an offer
to Spike, watched him play pick-
up in an open gym. Spike played
seven games and never lost.

Looking back on it, that was

hardly coincidence.

“We kind of set the teams up in

my favor,” Albrecht said.

Regardless,

Beilein
was

sold. He decided
right then that
he
was
going

to offer Spike
a
scholarship,

though he didn’t
tell him that at
the time.

One
week

later,
Spike

was set to visit
campus. At the airport, when he
told a TSA agent why he was going
to Michigan, the airport employee
didn’t believe him.

“He’s like ‘Michigan? Get the

hell out of here,’ ” Albrecht said.
“And he screams over to his friend
Big Mike, ‘Yo, Big Mike. This
little white boy says he’s going to
Michigan.’ ”

Doubters aplenty, Spike took off

for Ann Arbor.

* * *

On his campus visit, Spike

wanted
to
make
a
good

impression,
and
Beilein
was

looking out for him.

The story goes that Spike,

Beilein, then-sophomore forward
Jon Horford and some of the
assistant coaches were out to
lunch at The Chop House. After
eating, the coaches insisted Spike
get dessert. He didn’t want to, but
they said they needed to beef him
up.

“He tried to order tiramisu

and he asked what was in it,”
Horford remembers. “I told
him there was a little alcohol
in it, and Coach Beilein freaked
out like, ‘No, no, no you can’t
have anything with alcohol in it.
That’s not responsible of me.’ He
made a big deal of it.”

Later that day, Beilein had

others keep an eye on Spike for
him — this time in a players-only
open gym. Due to NCAA rules,
coaches cannot watch open gyms
that are not mandated tryouts.

Spike held his own, and after

the practice, Beilein asked some
of the players what they thought:
Was Spike walk-on talent or a
scholarship player?

“Everyone was like, ‘Oh yeah,

he’s a great kid; he’s really nice;
he’s a pretty good basketball
player,’ ” Horford said. “But
literally, I was the only one who
said that I thought he should be on
a scholarship, and I didn’t know
that until (Michigan assistant
coach Bacari Alexander) told me
later. He’s like, ‘You know, you
were the only one.’ ”

Bartelstein

and
former

Michigan
player
Matt

Vogrich
claim

that they, too,
recommended
Spike
for

scholarship,
perhaps
less

vocally.
The

exact
number

is unclear, but

what is clear is that not all of his
future teammates thought he
had the makings of a scholarship
player at the time.

The next day, Beilein made

his decision final. He would
offer Spike a scholarship. And so
the unlikely marriage between
Michigan and Albrecht began.

* * *

Twelve minutes, 17 points and

one tweet. That’s what it took for

Spike to go from unrecognized to
can’t-be-missed.

Spike flew under the radar for

most of his freshman year. During
one game at Ohio State, he was late
coming off the bus. When he tried
to catch up with his teammates, a
security guard stopped him and
told him, “Players only.”

He played in garbage time

and whenever Burke needed a
breather.

He knew his role. Beilein had

made it clear: He’d back up Burke,
and the following year, when
another guard named Derrick
Walton Jr. arrived, Spike would
likely back him up, too. That was
OK with Spike. He remembered
what his dad used to tell him:
“Not everyone can be a superstar,
but everyone can be a superstar in
their own role.”

But on that Monday night in

Atlanta, on the biggest stage, in
the 2013 National Championship
Game against Louisville, Spike
was the superstar.

Burke committed two fouls

early in the first half. Beilein took
him out, and Spike went in. He
knocked down his first five field-
goal attempts, pushing Michigan
out to a 12-point lead. The magic
ended, though, as Michigan’s
lead, and championship hopes,
slipped away. But nobody forgot
the night Spike had.

His
performance
shocked

everyone except those who knew
him.

“When that all happened, I was

like, ‘This is what he did in high
school,’ ” former Crown Point
teammate and best friend Evan
Langbehn recalled thinking. “I
wouldn’t say I was shocked. …
You always knew that he thrived
in the big moment.”

His former coach at Crown

Point, Clint Swan was at the game
and couldn’t hold in his emotion.

“For him to overcome so

many doubters and not just get a
Division I scholarship, but to get a
Big Ten scholarship, and not just
to get a Big Ten scholarship but
to contribute his freshman year,
and not just to contribute but to
make the All-Final Four team.
It was almost more than I could
overcome.”

The day after the loss, Spike

and
some
teammates
were

talking. One of them — Spike
forgets who, but denies it was
him — threw out the idea that he
tweet at supermodel Kate Upton,
who was at the game the night
before.

Spike didn’t love the idea.

Friday, November 13, 2015 // Tip Off
6B

“No kidding,

he’s not passing
this first eye test

at all.”

COURTESY OF THE ALBRECHT FAMILY

Spike Albrecht earned his nickname through baseball, because he never took his cleats off when he was younger.

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